[SteveFish]

Hi Joe. The forces aren't really that different, it is just a different application of a whirlpool. If you put whole milk in my 15 gallon home brew pot and stirred it vigorously with a large spoon you could skim the heavy cream at the top of the whirlpool near the center, but it wouldn't be very efficient at all. Similarly, if you put a bunch of large lead shot in a tank of whole milk (not recommended), they would probably collect on the bottom near the inlet of the cream separator. Different kinds of separators are designed for specific purposes, and a cream separator would be similar to those in the link provided by Tommya300 in the second post of this thread. The tea leaves/brew pot situation we have been talking about is more a natural phenomenon similar to a tornado or hurricane, but with a spoon as the driver instead of hot air. Steve